A Rose by Any Other Name
by JacobRoss
Summary: It's Eren's birthday! And Levi wants to give him a really good present. But his jealous nature sets in when he sees Mikasa stealing Eren's attention! Also, Eren's going to fight some titans and Levi doesn't want him to go all alone! A romantic story of jealousy and drama!


4

The inevitable disparity in ease of living is an intrinsic fact associated with a capitalist society. Knowing this, the topic of capitalism has had a controversial history wherein economists or idealists of all kinds have hoped to theorize and propose superior alternatives. Thomas More and Karl Marx are two of those aforementioned thinkers who have had more influential ideas on the subject than almost anyone else. More wrote a work describing what he thinks a more ideal society would look like without describing in detail how a realistic society would ever be able to transition into it. Conversely, Marx had very intricate ideas on how to make the transition from a capitalist-controlled society into a proletariat-friendly one but he came short in elaborating what the final solution would be. In some sense, combining the ideas of the two thinkers makes perfect sense.

In Book 1 of Utopia, More explains some of the problems in capitalist England through the character of Raphael Hythloday. One of the first points he addresses is the problem of the nobleman and their retainers. These noblemen possess no skills themselves but rather prosper from the rents of their skilled tenants. Even worse are the retainers who, after leaving the company of their noblemen, are deemed useless for having never developed skills. Evidently More sees much value in men learning trades early in life and he sees the huge number of men with nothing to contribute to the overall welfare of society as a large problem in England.

More goes on to show how the laziness exhibited by the upper class leads to a much more widespread problem. The insatiability of these landowners leads them to eventually do away with crops and replace them with more lucrative sheep. This results in many hapless farmers being forced into crime to sustain themselves. To put it concisely, More believes that the class struggles between the land-owners and the workers is destructive to England.

This is not an idea that Marx is unfamiliar with. As he states in the opening of the Communist Manifesto, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Capitalism in Marx's mind is simply the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. The latter's exploitation of the former is done in a number of ways, usually resulting in a complete loss of individualism.

The bourgeoisie acts as a striking parallel to More's example of English noblemen. And like More, Marx clearly puts much value on a man's ability to possess and utilize a skill. Marx lived in a time where unskilled labor such as factory work was dominating the prospective career options for most men. As he says in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto, "It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers." Consequently, the zeitgeist surrounding Marx was certainly not optimistic. No longer were these workers skilled in what they were doing. As Marx would say, they were an "appendage of the machine."

The workers of Marx's time may have been manufacturing and developing a product but there was no longer any sense of self in the final product. These were not men who were artisans or engineers who could value their work as their own creation. Rather, the result was a lifeless product whose existence was the result of a mishmash of man and machine. Men are estranged to their own creations and feel completely alienated from the final product. The reason is because this is no longer labor that a man can enjoy and take pride in. There was never a time when any person involved in the creation of the product felt as though they owned it. It is simply forced labor.

Marx believes that the division of capital between two classes is inevitable in capitalism. The natural consequence of competition is the accumulation of wealth in a few hands. This leads to a situation wherein there is no more competition. The rich are free to do as they please, as they have a monopoly on the situation. This results not only in a stagnation of innovation but also a stagnation of social mobility. As time goes on, the working class's chances of ever joining the bourgeoisie in a comfortable life drops.

The bourgeoisie would no longer make decisions based on ethics or morality. Every decision was henceforth motivated and measured solely by capital gain. Marx writes about the consequences of this in Capital saying, "…the average duration of life in the pottery districts of Stoke-on-Trent, and Wolstanton is extraordinarily short." (Marx 155) In the same vein, he writes about the shocking conditions of the children in this society as he mentions specific examples of boys less than 10 years old working under terrible circumstances. As one can see, the effects of the bourgeoisie on the proletariat are not only dehumanizing in a mental sense, but also in a physical sense.

Although the assertions made by Marx often serve as the epitome of anti-capitalism, he is unfortunately uncharacteristically silent on what the final solution is. More, however, devoted much of his time on considering a preferable alternative. The island of Utopia has many policies enacted to serve as the answer to his numerous problems with capitalism.

First and foremost, skill and labor are an integral part of a Utopian's life. As a direct response to England's aforementioned problem with sheep, agriculture is one of the most important parts of Utopia. Every person is taught to farm, men and women alike, from childhood on. Denizens are also free to learn other skills and choose among them which to perform. The exception to this is the case in which the city has a great need for a certain skill. Evidently the prosperity of the community and city as a whole is more important than that of the individual's wants.

Indeed, Labor is obviously taken very seriously in Utopia but with that being said, Utopians are only required to work for 6 hours a day. More believes that those hours lost by not working all day are gained by the lack of any lazy or otherwise useless citizens such as the Noblemen and their retainers in England. These extra hours free up time for intellectual activities, which opens up a world of opportunity for innovation for the overall country.

More goes out of his way to abolish all of those evils that embody capitalism. There is no sense of capital in Utopia. All resources such as gold and silver are completely meaningless other than to exchange to neighboring countries. Not only that, but there is no private property either. More knew very well what the causes of the division of classes in England were. By removing these, each citizen's value in comparison to one another is dramatically reduced. Indeed, there is even an absence of luxurious clothes or houses. Those things do nothing for the country's overall stability except divide it.

The only ones whom one might regard as being in an upper class are the syphogrants who are democratically elected amongst the people. Although these men are exempt, they still work nonetheless. This is to act as an example to the many other laborers in Utopia. The upper class in England are doubtlessly poor models for the citizens to strive toward.

In conclusion, More and Marx both relay strikingly similar observations of capitalism to their reader considering how vastly different the times they lived in were. These examinations are quite clearly some of the most influential works on society ever written. Capitalism is an ideology that persists today and most likely will be staying around for a while. Although, the two thinkers may not be infallible in their writings, a considerable portion of their ideas are certainly applicable to society as a whole today.


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